‘It has not only been my personal history that has strengthened my identity as a Unitarian Universalist, but also the choices and contributions of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations that have cemented my choice of this faith.

“It is the contributions of generations past that made way for myself—a black woman and proud Unitarian Universalist—to hold both of those identities, not as conflicting or opposed attributes, but as simultaneously and harmoniously linked aspects of my existence.”

—Alice Mandt, third-generation UU and director of religious education at James Reeb UU Congregation in Madison, Wisconsin, speaking during the General Assembly’s Synergy Bridging Service, June 22.